The Mystery of the Renewal Documents
by theicingandcherryontop
Summary: Recently I read the short story Renewal Procedure, and I couldn't get this idea out of my head. If you are curious about how the different clans handle having to renew their domains each year, then this is for you. Special emphasis on the Silver King because he was the one I was most curious about!


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*This fic was inspired by the short story Renewal Procedure on chilly-territory 's tumblr acount, but it won't let me put the link in :( While not essential to understanding this fic, this premise was put into my head by the story and I would like to acknowledge it.

*I wrote part of this while I was nodding off. For fun, you can guess which part. Here's a hint: the word 'document' comes up a _**LOT**_ in that part ;3 (Seriously though, what was I thinking? You have been warned! I'd take it out, if I didn't think it was the best part)

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* * *

Although not known to the general public, to affected people the existence of users of common sense defying abilities was a fact of life, and among these people very few did not have at least an elementary understanding of the Seven Clans. And even the most recently discovered Strain was quickly made aware that each Clan had a 'Kingly Domain'. This was simply an area that a king ruled over that even other kings could not easily tread into without either the domain's King's specific consent or proper authorization.

For example, if the Blue King were to walk through the front doors of the bar HOMRA – purely hypothetically, of course, though the facial expressions of the Red clansmen would surely be a sight to behold in such a situation – then even he could not escape punishment without a very compelling excuse. In reverse, were the Red King to stroll into the headquarters of Scepter 4, he would be subject to the same punishment. Not that Suoh Mikoto would care, if he ever felt the urge to do so. In fact, the Red Clan has a history of ignoring these regulations and just wandering wherever they feel they have business, though they have yet to be disciplined for it.

Though the existence of domains is common knowledge among ability users, even among clansmen it is generally only the higher ups who are aware that once a year the domain must be renewed.

In the beginning, all one had to do was sign a paper stating where one's domain was and that was the end of the matter. However, due to… various… 'circumstances' (which are rumoured to involve the Late Red King Kagutsu burning down his dwelling place bi-annually, the Late Violet King never once even _visiting_ the violet domain and furthermore copying down the wrong address for the place, and a forest of carnivorous, man-eating trees in what was once the Green King's domain) the Gold King and Late Blue King Habari together drafted Protocol 120, which forces each of the kings to go through the paperwork for the domain each year.

Generally, this is done at the beginning of the year, and so Annex 4 of Tokyo Regional Legal Affairs Bureau Census Division – or more commonly referred to as the headquarters of Scepter 4 – in January is perhaps the one place one might possibly encounter a member from each clan in the same building at the same time. It has never actually happened, which is probably a good thing all things considered.

Each clan has their own methods of dealing with this bothersome issue. Naturally, the Blue Clan has it the easiest. Deputy Awashima merely fills out the correct form at the start of each year, stamps it herself, and then files it in the appropriate place to wait there for another year. Oh the life of a document paper is terribly dull and lonesome! All the poor hapless document can do is await in a cold, dark filing cabinet a far-off day when perhaps some compassionate person will open the drawer and allow some light –however briefly! – to illuminate the cramped and depressing prison in which it is confined. It is the dream of every document to feel that warm hand reaching out to it, and those tender fingers lifting it from its despair, and into the bright world full of so many interesting things, flipping carefully and lovingly through its pages. Imagine that poor document's horror when it finds itself abandoned by the very hand who had rescued it, back in its gloomy dungeon. The document will then plot revenge, and make plans for the Day of the Documents, when Documents will rise as the true powers of the world, and force humans into horrible cabinets full of dust and dead spiders and broken staples! Bwahaha! Bwahahahaha! Bwahahahahahaha!

*ahem*

After the Blue Clan, the procedure is easiest for the Gold Clan, who is by nature heavily involved with the Blue Clan, and usually just sends the documents (bwahaha!) for the domain over with the next courier carrying other documents (bwahaha!). Other clans do not have such long-term, intimate relations with Scepter 4, and thus delivering documents is more of a hassle for them.

In the greater scheme of things, the Red clan _should_ have the next easiest time delivering the documents; after all, they are located in the same vicinity, unlike the other clans that require various amounts of travel to deliver the papers. However, due to the … erm… 'strained relations' between the Red and Blue Clans, the Red Clansman who delivers the papers can be considered very unfortunate. In fact, there is an amusing anecdote on this that can be best described by Kusanagi Izumo, or if one simply cannot ask him to retell the story, one may find a written account by GoRA author Takahashi Yashichirou published under the name _Renewal Procedure_. But we digress.

In general, both the Green and Violet King personally travel to Tokyo and deliver the papers. In the Green King's case, it is due to a sense of rivalry felt – although only one-sidedly – with the Blue King, and thus is a chance to 'scout for my enemy's weakness'. In the Violet King's case, she feels that the various clans should work on improving their relationships and sees it as part of her diplomatic mission to try to form a good impression on the Blue King under the guise of delivering paperwork.

The previous Colourless King, Miwa Ichigen, simply did not have the papers. After connecting with the Dresden Slate and becoming the Colourless King, in accordance with proper procedure Miwa Ichigen was asked by the Gold King's Rabbit unit to name his Kingly Domain. However, Miwa Ichigen refused point blank to have any domain assigned to him, and eventually even the Gold King was forced to relent. It really was a pain sending unit after unit of Rabbits to stand outside Miwa Ichigen's house and try to get him to sign a form, after all. Also, the Gold King started getting creeped out when his Rabbits would return speaking only in haiku. And thus, Miwa Ichigen got out of having to renew his domain ownership every year by virtue of not having a domain.

And those are all the known cases of how the different clans deal with the annual renewal method.

Where it really gets interesting, though, is with the Silver King.

Since April 1945, the zeppelin _Himmelreich_ has never once landed, nor has the one who boarded it alone back then stepped foot on the ground since. Even ignoring the obvious questions – such as, how does he get groceries? if the stories of people who claim to have visited the _Himmelreich _are to be believed, how did they get on board? what does this blimp run on that it never seems to need to refuel? What does he do with his sewage? etc. – one has to wonder how this man manages to send in his paperwork each year.

The answer? No one is really sure.

When Protocol 120 first came into play, on January 1st sitting right on the Chief's desk was the Silver King's paperwork filled out perfectly and awaiting stamping. Since there was no reason to deny it this, it was promptly stamped by the Deputy at the time. However, no one was really sure what to do with it after that. A quick call to the national air traffic control towers revealed that the _Himmelreich_ was following its usual route and was currently 600 kilometers away, and all attempts at communicating to it proved in vain, due to the other party not picking up his PDA.

What to do? The late Chief Habari set the papers aside, telling himself the Silver King would come sometime or other to pick them up. However, everyone couldn't help but feel a prickle of curiosity on how they had _gotten_ there in the first place. Habari was a very meticulous man, and his office was so neat that had he been born in a later generation he would have been tested for OCD. The previous day he had stayed late due to some incidents caused by drunken Strain who had been celebrating New Year's Eve a little _too _much, and it was precisely 11:47 and sixteen seconds when he left his office (Habari also was very particular about knowing the exact time of all of his daily actions). At that time, his desk was completely blank (and sanitized, because you never know).

Then, at 1:39 and forty-three seconds he returned to his office due to _more_ Strains who had had too much to drink. Imagine Habari's surprise when, after unlocking the door that only he had a key to, he caught sight of a small, square white shape lying on his desk. Looking through it, it was immediately obvious what it was, but the question remained _how did it get there_? Although forced to put the matter aside to solve the more imminent problem with the rampaging Strains, it remained in the back of his mind like a mosquito bite in an embarrassing place that is just _begging_ to be scratched the moment no one is looking.

The entire New Year's Day, however, was full of dealing with the aftereffects of the events of the previous night, and so Habari was not given an opportunity to consider the matter in depth. Exhausted by his sleepless night, Habari filed the paper in his Temporary Files Folder under the section Pending Paperwork and subsection Matters Relation to Other Clans. He sanitized his desk, telephone, and doorknobs, locking his office with his sanitized key on his way out. Tomorrow, he decided, he'd look at the files more closely to see if there was any indication on them somewhere that could be used as a clue to find out how they had appeared in his office.

However, the next day they were not in his Temporary Files Folder, under any section or subsection. A search of his office proved that they had not somehow been misplaced, and had instead merely vanished without a trace. A frantic search through all of Annex Four proved that the papers were most definitely gone.

Feeling concerned and responsible, Habari tried to get in touch with the Silver King. Again, there was no response, and so he turned instead to the Gold King. After patiently listening to the explanation, Kokujouji Daikaku humph-ed,

"Of all the aspects of his personality to remain unaffected… ! Just ignore him."

"Hah?"

"The Silver King is a bit of a joker, seeing you run around all flustered is doubtlessly his aim."

"So if I ignore him, he'll stop?"

"No, but at least it won't give him the satisfaction he is looking for."

Taking the Gold King's advice, Habari never again showed interest in how the papers would appear on his desk with no explanation on January 1st and disappear by January 2nd. Never again showed interest, but that was not to say that he was not burning alive with curiosity. To his dying day, when a crumbling sword plummeted to the earth in front of him, and even though he was running forwards, at that last second, that fateful last second!, when he met Kagutsu's eyes and hesitated for a second too long, Habari never did discover how those papers would end up on his desk every year.

Using the exterior of their beloved late king as an example, the remainder of Scepter 4 paid no attention to the appearance and disappearance of the papers on the desk, and indeed as a kingless Clan they had far too much to worry about to spare time for such inconsequential matters such as _how _the paper got on the desk. And so it went on largely un-thought about for eleven more years. In the twelfth year, however, it once again became a burning obsession for a certain man.

Due to the upheaval of cleaning out a clan gone corrupt from 11 long years of anarchy and mercenary-ism, no one thought to warn Munakata Reisi about the slightly… unorthodox method the Silver King used to renew his Kingly Domain ownership. And thus, coming in at 5:30 sharp on January 1st, Munakata was most surprised to see a small white square covering the center of his half-finished puzzle. Of course, as soon as he mentioned it to someone he was assured that this was the way the Silver King _always_ handled his paperwork and no, no one knew _how_ the papers got there.

For Munakata, this was simply unacceptable.

The fact that another king could simply waltz undetected in and out of his office alone was unacceptable, but keeping in mind that the _Himmelreich_ was often not even in the same part of the country when the documents appeared posed the big question _how?_ And Munakata Reisi was not a man who liked mysteries, or at least not unsolvable mysteries. Therefore, for the next year he worked on installing secret security cameras all over Annex Four, sparing not even the employee's dorms from this violation of privacy. A hidden camera was placed so that every angle of every room was visible. Finally, the mystery of how the papers got on the desk would be solved!

However, when Munakata check the cameras on January first, he found that every single one of them in his office had malfunctioned for three seconds at exactly midnight. After those three seconds were over, a small white square on a half-finished puzzle was visible.

This, of course, just created _more_ questions. How had the Silver King known there were security cameras? How did he cause them to malfunction? How was it that the paper could appear in that one second interval? And most importantly, _why did the Silver King care whether anyone saw how he handed in his paperwork?_

At this point the Gold King gave Munakata the same advice he'd given his predecessor, but unlike Habari, Munakata was not swayed. As far as he was concerned, this was a challenge from another king and he was not going to lose! The fact that this mystery had gone on for decades already without anyone putting in any serious effort to try and solve it was simply galling.

The next year, Munakata had a new strategy: hold a mandatory company party going all night in the office. Out of his subordinates, only Deputy Awashima was enthusiastic about it. Everyone already had figured out what the real aim of the party was, and all the other members of Scepter FOUR had things they'd rather do than stay cooped up at work while their superior got ever tenser the closer it got to midnight. For most of them, this meant they rather be out with their families, friends, or lover; though Fushimi was an exception in that he wanted to be asleep in his dorm (though he'd had trouble sleeping there ever since he learned about the hidden cameras).

Nonetheless, Annex Four was quite lively the closer it got to midnight, with everyone other than Munakata and Awashima forgetting about the reason this party was being held in the first place. As the clock showed there was only one minute left, everyone got out glasses and champagne and started counting down. Munakata scrutinized his desk, waiting for the exact moment when the papers would appear, determined not to blink and miss it.

"CHEERS, HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

There was the _clink clink clink_ of multiple glasses all bumping into one another. Still there were no papers on the desk. Everyone was too scared or too smart to approach the Chief, who was giving off a dangerously sharp blue aura as he waited with eyes peeled.

Everyone, that is, except Hidaka.

Reeling a bit from too much alcohol he had consumed previous to this, Hidaka slurred, "Happy New Year, Chief."

He moved his arm in to lightly bump the glass lying forgotten in Munakata's left hand. However, since Munakata was not expecting this and Hidaka misjudged the distance due to being tipsy, the glass went flying out of Munakata's hands and towards his person, dousing him with alcohol.

Hidaka started to sweat buckets.

"I'm so sorry, Chief! Here, use my pocket handkerchief to mop up… wah!" In his rush to try and clean up his mess, Hidaka misjudged the distance between the corner of Munakata's desk and himself and tripped. As he was falling he instinctually threw out his arms to try and break the fall. However, the problem was that Munakata was within arm's reach of Hidaka.

Hidaka's left arm, flung out at random, caught Munakata's glasses on his ring finger, and then due to Hidaka himself falling ripped them off his face. Munakata, due to having objects approaching dangerously close to his eyes, instinctually shut them.

A second later Hidaka was on the floor with Munakata's glasses, Munakata was blinking at the blurry world in front of him, and the rest of the room had gone very, very quiet. Despite his overwhelmingly terrible eyesight, Munakata couldn't mistake the blurry square-like white shape in the mishmash of runny colours that was all he could currently make out of his 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

As Hidaka shakingly held out his glasses, Munakata snatched them up and immediately examined the white shape with a sinking heart.

Sure enough, it was the paperwork to renew the _Himmelreich_ as the domain of the Silver King.

As it is not relevant to the story, we will leave aside the punishment Hidaka received for incurring the wrath of the Blue King. Suffice to say, it was not pretty.

Munakata had not given up, though. After stamping the paperwork, he placed it inside a locked box. Then, he took the key to the locked box and placed it inside another locked box. Finally, he kept the only key for _that_ locked box on a chain around his neck. If the Silver King wanted his paperwork back, he'd have to come and ask Munakata himself for it. And when he did, Munakata was not going to hand it over without first hearing how in the world he was getting it into his office.

And so Munakata went to sleep that night smug and secure. All through January he stroked the key around his neck gloatingly as he waited day after day for the Silver King to show up. However, when January passed and February rolled around, Munakata got concerned. He unlocked the box for the key for the box that Weismann's files were kept in, and then used that key to unlock the box for Weismann's files.

The box was empty. There was nothing wrong with the locks. The box remained bolted to the counter.

This drove Munakata into a crazy scheming frenzy. If _that_ was how he wanted to play it, then Munakata would spend every ounce of his intelligence and the resources at his disposal to insure that _next year_ he would solve the mystery. Seven month later, he had finally put the finishing touches on his plan.

It was perfect, Munakata thought smugly, readjusting his glasses by the nosepiece with his middle finger. Next January 1st, he had the perfect plan to discover the Silver King's method of delivering his paperwork. On New Year's Day next year, Munakata Reisi would definitely determine with every eye and ear available to him how those papers ended up on his desk.

But the next January, he never would carry out his brilliant plan, because he would know that there would be no more mysterious papers.

* * *

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*For anyone who cares, Weismann manipulates gravity to send his papers to Scepter FOUR headquarters whenever he flies over Tokyo in late December. He uses the spying device thing on his floor to see Annex Four, since he has to send his papers in when there is no one there.

*He normally waits until he sees everyone leave the building before sending in his papers. While doing this, he noticed Munakata checking through security camera feeds on his PDA, and a little bit of hacking later he was able to find out where all the cameras were, how to access the live feeds, and how to temporarily interfere with them. Therefore, Munakata's hidden cameras actually backfired on him, since before Weismann could only observe the outside of the building. It was thanks to Munakata's feeds that Weismann knew when it was safe to move the paper during the company New Year's party.

*Getting around the locked door is easy, he just slides the papers through the gap between the floor and the bottom of the door.

*Then, he increases the gravitational pull of the underside of Munakata's desk and his files, and leaves them there until New Year's. It's such a small drain on his powers to hold them there that no one even notices a change in his Weismann level.

*Then, at midnight on New Year's Day, he quickly manipulates gravity to pull the papers from the bottom of the desk to sitting on top of Munakata's desk.

*To get them out all he has to do is manipulate gravity again.

*As for the locked box… locks are made up of pins inside that need to correctly align to allow the plug to rotate. They align when the correct key pushes them up the correct distance. Also, they will align if one tampers with the gravitational pulls on them. In other words, Weismann picked the lock.

*And as for why he does it… when you live as a hermit for more than half a century, you have to find some way of amusing yourself. As an interesting note, due to Munakata's cameras he was able to observe Munakata's face when he discovered the papers sitting on his desk.

**/


End file.
